1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a structure for attaching a harness protector used in supplying electricity, whereby the harness protector is made of synthetic resin and is attached to a sliding door of a vehicle to absorb a slack of a wire harness associated with opening or closing of the sliding door for continuously supplying elements, such as accessories, in the sliding door with electricity.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 6 and 7 show a structure for attaching a harness protector for supplying the sliding door of a vehicle with electricity, which structure is the subject of an application applied for previously by an applicant of this invention (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-35485, p9 to P11, FIG. B).
This harness protector 53 for supplying electricity is composed of a base 54 and a cover 55, both made of synthetic resin, and employed to accommodate a wire harness 52 in a curved state. A flat spring 56 as a resilient member made of metal for urging the wire harness 52 upward, which is a direction of absorbing the slack, is provided inside the harness protector 53. Electric supply equipment is composed of at least the harness protector 53 and the flat spring 56.
The base 54 and cover 55 are locked by a locking means (not shown) such as a locking projection and an engaging frame piece with the wire harness accommodated therein, and the base 54 is fixed to a metal door-panel 58 of a sliding door 57 with a bolt 59, a locking clip or the like. A door-trim (not shown in FIG. 6) made of synthetic resin is attached to the door-panel 58 to cover the door-panel 58, and the harness protector 53 is arranged between the door-panel 58 and the door-trim.
The base 54 and the cover 55 have vertical substrates 60, 61 and circumferential walls 62, 63 formed around the vertical walls 60, 61. By assembling the base 54 and the cover 55, one of both circumference walls 62, 63 is lying on top of the other whereby space for shifting and bending the harness is created between the substrates 60, 61, and a narrow opening 64 through which the harness is drawn is created at a front end of the harness protector 53. An opening 65 of oblong slit shape through which the harness is drawn is created at a lower end of the harness protector 53. A base portion of the flat spring 56 is fixed on the base 54, and a free end of the flat spring 56 supports the wire harness 52. A wall 26 (shown in FIG. 8) for regulating a bending diameter of the wire harness 52 may be provided on the base 54.
One end of the wire harness 52 is pulled out of the opening 64 to be connected to such as an associated wire harness or an accessory (not shown) of the sliding door side through a connector 66, while being fixed to the substrate 60 near the opening 64 at the front end of the flat spring 56 by such as tape winding. The other end of the wire harness 52 is pulled out of a bottom opening 65, being routed to a vehicle body side 68 via a connecting passage 67, being fixed to a harness fixing member 70 near a step 69, and being connected to a wire harness (not shown) of the vehicle body side 68.
When the sliding door 57 is fully closed as shown in FIG. 6, the wire harness 52 is urged upward by the flat spring 56, being curved in a large diameter shape, while being pulled backward. When the sliding door 57 is on the way to open, and nearly fully open from the fully closed state by being shifted backward, the wire harness 52 tends to sag greatly, curving in a small diameter shape, however, the flat spring 56 urges the wire harness 52 upward to prevent the wire harness 52 from sagging. When the sliding door 57 is fully closed from being fully open, the wire harness 52 is also prevented from sagging by the same action. Thus, the wire harness 52 is prevented from being sandwiched between the sliding door 57 and the vehicle body 68. The wire harness 52 swings back and forth in conjunction with opening and closing of the sliding door 57. Incidentally, the showing of the cover 55 is omitted in FIG. 7.
However, according to a conventional structure for attaching a harness protector used in supplying electricity, when a sliding length of the sliding door 57 is short as shown by a chain line in FIG. 8, there is no problem, but when the length of the sliding door 57 is long as shown by a continuous line in FIG. B, a length and slack of a wire harness 19 are increased. Therefore, a synthetic harness protector, of which a base 2′ is solely shown in FIG. 8, for accommodating the wire harness 19 is upsized and accordingly a possibility that the harness protector, particularly a cover 3′ in FIG. 9, is warped or offset in a thickness direction and particularly in an inward direction is increased. In this case, as shown in FIG. 9, an inner width L of a harness protector 1′ in the thickness direction is decreased so that an inner surface of the harness protector 1′, particularly a cover 3′ thereof, abuts on an outer surface of the wire harness 19. Therefore, a motion, such as bending and swinging, of the wire harness 19 becomes rough so that there is a fear that the slack may not be absorbed smoothly, or the wire harness 19 or an inner surface 28 of the harness protector 1′ may become worn out.
Incidentally, FIG. 9 shows the wire harness 19 equipped with a corrugate tube having an ellipse cross-section, however, the wire harness 19 equipped with a corrugate tube having a circular cross-section is also acceptable. A reference numeral 70′ in FIG. 8 indicates a harness-fixing member at the vehicle body side.
These problems are caused by the wire harness 19 being easily deformed, and such deformation is caused because the harness protector 1′ has an elliptic opening 22′ via which the harness is pulled out. There are some ways for reducing warpage of the harness protector 1′, such as thickening a wall, elaborating a surface rib form, increasing a number of resin-molded gates of the harness protector 1′ or increasing applied pressure of a resin-molding machine, however, any of these leads to a cost rise and is not realistic.